Semper Hopkins Upholstery & Interiors

19/10/2026

Tomorrow I’m stepping away from the day-to-day for a strategy day with my business coach Kerry Boland.

I’ve never been short of ideas. The harder bit is deciding which ones deserve our attention and what we actually want SH Upholstery to become known for.
That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

We teach interior design. We teach upholstery. We teach furniture upcycling. And with Design & Transform Your Room, we’re starting to bring all of those skills together in one place.

That feels really important. Because people don’t live in separate little boxes of “interior design” and “upholstery”. They have homes, rooms, furniture, budgets, things they want to keep, and things they want to learn how to do themselves.

Tomorrow is about looking at what comes next, what we build on, and what we want to be known for.

I’ll share a bit more once I’ve had the space to think properly.

18/10/2026

GROWN-UPS NEED TO PLAY AT CHRISTMAS TOO. 🎄

Who would you bring for a few hours of Christmas creativity?

Your mum? Your sister? Your best friend? Maybe the group of you who keep saying, “We really need to organise something this Christmas…” 😂

Consider this your sign to actually book it.
Come to our converted chapel in Scholar Green, where the fire’s on, the Christmas tunes are playing and everything is ready for you.

Choose from:
🌿 Christmas Wreath Making
🎁 Handmade Christmas Decorations
🎨 Christmas Printmaking

We provide all the materials and tuition, plus refreshments and afternoon-style tea.
No prep. No experience needed. No running around buying supplies.

You just turn up, get creative, have a laugh and go home with something you’ve made yourself.
£85 per person.

Tag the person you’d bring 👇

Or comment PLAY and I’ll send you all the dates and booking details.

https://shupholstery.co.uk/christmas-workshops-cheshire/

Emma x

17/10/2026

Got a room you keep thinking about but never quite get started on?

Maybe you don’t know where to begin. Maybe you’ve got too many ideas. Maybe you’re worried about buying the wrong thing and wasting money.

That’s exactly what Design & Transform Your Room is there to help with.

We start with your actual room — how it needs to work, how you want it to feel, what you already own and what’s getting in the way.

Then we move into upholstery and furniture upcycling so you don’t just plan the room, you start learning practical skills to bring it to life too.

The next programme starts 15 January 2027.

£695 paid in full if booked by 31 October — saving £100.

Comment ROOM and I’ll send you the details, or have a look here:
https://shupholstery.co.uk/design-transform-your-room/

16/10/2026

Nine women. Nine different reasons for booking. One day they decided to do something for themselves. ❤️

Today we welcomed another lovely group to our sold-out Introduction to Upholstery workshop at our chapel in Scholar Green.

And I wanted to share a little about the people behind these beautiful pieces of furniture.

❤️ Courtney took a day off work to make a bench for her bedroom.

❤️ Kay, mum of three young children, took a well-deserved day for herself while hubby held the fort.

❤️ Sharon, newly retired after a career in accountancy, didn’t think she was creative. She’s now planning to help her brother reupholster his narrowboat!

❤️ Amanda and Karen met through sewing and fancied trying something new together.

❤️ Lisa had wanted to try upholstery for years and brought her stepmum Debbie along.

❤️ Sam, new to the area and a self-confessed collector of hobbies, wanted to meet new people and learn something new.

❤️ And Sue had been thinking about trying upholstery for years. Today she finally did it!

Different ages, different backgrounds and different reasons for coming.

But they all had one thing in common. They stopped thinking about doing something and actually did it!

And I think that’s worth celebrating. ❤️

Because it’s so easy to put ourselves at the bottom of the list. There’s always work, family and a hundred other things demanding our time.

Today was about more than making furniture.

It was about laughter, learning, meeting new people, building confidence and doing something simply because they WANTED to.

And just look at what they created! 😍

So here’s my Friday thought…

What’s something you’ve been saying you’d love to try but haven’t quite got around to?

Maybe it’s time to stop putting it off.

✨ Fancy a day for yourself? Join us on Thursday 19th November in Scholar Green, Cheshire. Beginners welcome! Comment CREATE and we will send you the details.

https://shupholstery.co.uk/event/introduction-to-upholstery-workshop-cheshire-for-beginners/

16/10/2026

Fancy learning something new in November — and actually leaving with something useful?

🏡 18 November — Introduction to Interior Design — £125

Learn how to bring colour, layout, lighting, furniture and your own style together with much more confidence.

You’ll work on a room of your own and leave with your practical workbook and toolkit so you can keep using the process at home.

🪑 19 November — Introduction to
Upholstery — from £195

Perfect for complete beginners.
Learn the foundations of upholstery and leave with your own finished stool, footstool or bench.

Your frame, fabric, materials, tools, tuition and workbook are all included.
Small groups. Maximum eight people.

Comment CREATE and I’ll send you the details, or book here:
https://shupholstery.co.uk/events/category/workshops/

UpholsteryWorkshop

15/10/2026

Do you have a room at home that’s been “nearly finished” for so long you’ve stopped noticing it?

Ros and her family started ripping out their downstairs toilet around three years ago.

Then life happened. Two young children, other things needing time and money, and the smallest room in the house kept slipping back down the list.

When Ros joined Design & Transform Your Room, she was mainly thinking about function. Get it finished.

Make it practical. Work out what to do first without wasting money. But then we started asking different questions:
-What if it didn’t have to be “just the downstairs loo”?
-What if opening that door could actually make you smile?

We talked about what the family love, and one thing kept coming back — being by the sea. Ros already owns pieces of sea glass and a picture made by friends, so suddenly she had the beginnings of a design direction that meant something to them rather than something copied from Pinterest.

Then we looked at how the room could work harder too. Storage. What could live in there. What would make busy family life easier.

And because it’s a small room, we could also think differently about budget — flooring offcuts, Marketplace finds and being clever about where the money actually needs to go.

Sometimes you don’t need more money or more ideas.
You need the space to stop, think properly, and know what you’re actually looking for.

And Ros is only at the start. Next, we move into upholstery and furniture upcycling so the group can start bringing those ideas into their homes in practical ways too.

13/10/2026

"Sometimes you don’t need someone to completely redesign your room for you.

You just need someone to help you see that you’re heading in the right direction.

Becky joined our Introduction to Interior Design workshop because she wanted to feel more confident bringing together the rooms she’d already started working on.

After the session, she said it had helped confirm she was on the right track, given her practical points to work with, and made her feel more confident carrying on herself.

That’s exactly what we want from these workshops.

Not to make you dependent on us, but to help you understand the process well enough to trust your own decisions.

"

13/10/2026

"There’s a lot that happens before you ever walk through our doors.

One of the things we’re really big on with our workshops is making sure you don’t have to arrive with a car full of kit, spend a week trying to work out what you need, or worry that everyone else knows more than you do.

For our upholstery workshops, your frame, fabric, materials, tools, tuition and workbook are all taken care of.

For Interior Design, you’ll have your practical workbook and toolkit ready so you can spend the day actually learning how to work through your own room.

Small groups, hands-on help, and no more than eight people.

You just need to turn up ready to have a go.

"

11/10/2026

Want to know the story behind our Christmas workshops and why we do what we do? 🎄

I really enjoyed chatting with the team at Cheshire Life Magazine about what we do at the chapel and why I think it's so important for us grown-ups to make time to be creative and have a bit of fun too.

If you missed the magazine feature, you can now read the full article online.

Or, if you're like me and still love flicking through a magazine with a cuppa, you can pick up a copy of this month's Cheshire Life! ☕️

Thanks again to the team for sharing our story. ❤️

Fancy discovering the festive workshops helping people find their Christmas spirit? 🎄